Month: January 2017

Without so much as a usual and customary hearing, without even knowing in advance whom President Trump will nominate to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, Senate Democrats publicly declared in advance they will oppose any and all Trump appointments.

What will the Republican majority do?

Fortunately, it is Sen. Mitch McConnell who has “the briefcase” and not Sen. Chuck Schumer.

The nuclear or constitutional option is a parliamentary procedure that allows the U.S. Senate to override a rule or precedent by a simple majority of 51 votes, instead of by a supermajority of 60 votes. – Wikipedia

Democrats have essentially said they will be obstructionist throughout the confirmation process for President Trump’s appointees. Consider excerpts from a Fox News Sunday program on January 22, 2017, when Chris Wallace interviewed Senator Mitch McConnell.

WALLACE: Finally, President Trump says he wants to name a Supreme Court nominee. He’s talked about doing it within two weeks. And Senator Schumer has said that they’re going to block anyone that they don’t like, that they feel is outside the mainstream.

As Senate rules now stand, because the — the nuclear option was — was extended, it — on a partial level in 2013 by the Democrats, you can confirm lower court judges with just 51 votes.

MCCONNELL: Well, let me just say, I’m confident we’ll get a Supreme Court nominees confirmed. I expect an outstanding nominee sometime soon. I think it’s noteworthy to look at how the Republican minority handled Bill Clinton the first — in his first administration. Both — both of his first two nominees, Ginsburg and Breyer, no filibuster. Obama, in his first term, to go, no filibuster. We think our nominee ought to be treated the same way. If he is not treated that way, then, under the current Senate rule, we would have to get cloture. That is, we’d have to get 60 votes. We had to do that when the Democrats objecting to Justice Alito 10 years ago, but cloture was invoked. Sorry for the long answer. I think the short answer is, the nominee will be confirmed.

WALLACE: But would you consider extending the nuclear option and saying, even for Supreme Court justices, just a simple majority?

MCCONNELL: The nominee will be confirmed.

WALLACE: One thing I’ve learned with you, Senator McConnell, is once you’ve given an answer, you’re going to stick with that.

View a video of the Mitch McConnell interview on Fox News Sunday.

Let’s encourage our Republican senate majority to use the Nuclear Option, in light of the public position stated by the Democrat minority.

The Weekly Standard says today (1/30/17) we need better leadership from Pres. Trump, citing what it calls the “immigration fiasco”.

Well, I know that sound bite stirs the uninformed, but it was just a little too much misinformation for me to tolerate today. I immediately unsubscribed from the Weekly Standard.

We already have the misleading propaganda paid for by George Soros and promoted by leftist Democrats. The leftists and anarchists don’t need the help of misinformed Weekly Standard reporters to further undermine the authority of President Trump, the man We the People elected.

What fiasco?

President Obama officially identified seven Muslim nations from which Muslim terrorists present a threat to our national security. President Trump’s Executive Order specifically calls for extreme vetting of immigrants and travelers from those countries.

As candidate Trump promised on the campaign trail, he stopped the free flow immigration flooding in from those seven countries, pending “extreme vetting” to weed out potential terrorists, thereby protecting the American people.

Well, I must agree there truly is a fiasco underway, but not one of the president’s doing. The fiasco is one of anti-Trump news media, Democrats, and limp-wristed, gutless Republican lawmakers who can’t imagine doing anything that would make their Democrat counterparts unhappy, no siree.

Our president pledged to vet Muslim immigrants, so we voted for him as a point of agreement.

Our president pledged to repeal ObamaCare, so we voted for him as a point of agreement.

Barack Obama singlehandedly undermined the Democrat party and now limp-wristed, gutless Republican lawmakers are undermining the Republican party, bolstered by pseudo-conservative news services.

Any alien who a consular officer or the Attorney General knows, or has reasonable ground to believe, seeks to enter the United States to engage solely, principally, or incidentally in—

(i) any activity (I) to violate any law of the United States relating to espionage or sabotage or (II) to violate or evade any law prohibiting the export from the United States of goods, technology, or sensitive information,

(ii) any other unlawful activity, or

(iii) any activity a purpose of which is the opposition to, or the control or overthrow of, the Government of the United States by force, violence, or other unlawful means, is inadmissible.

Ill-informed Jews fear Trump is against Jews, as was Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh and others at the outset of WW2. To my Jewish friends, I say “chill out”. President Trump replaced an anti-Jew president. Or, is it possible because of your tendency to vote Democrat you were blind to Obama’s anti-semitic actions?

The Examiner reports, “President Trump’s decision to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and stop the free flow of refugees until they can be vetted better is reviving the morale of customs and border agents, according to the union representing both.

“Morale amongst our agents and officers has increased exponentially,” said a joint statement from the National Border Patrol Council and National ICE Council.”

In a 1790 House debate on naturalization, James Madison opined: “It is no doubt very desirable that we should hold out as many inducements as possible for the worthy part of mankind to come and settle amongst us, and throw their fortunes into a common lot with ours. But why is this desirable?…Not merely to swell the catalogue of people. No, sir, it is to increase the wealth and strength of the community; and those who acquire the rights of citizenship, without adding to the strength or wealth of the community are not the people we are in want of.”

A dozen years later, Madison wrote, “The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common national sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits; on the exemption of the citizens from foreign bias and prejudice; and on that love of country which will almost invariably be found to be closely connected with birth, education, and family.” [National Review 12/11/2015]

Action

I urge you to contact your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative. Tell them to stand behind President Trump’s defense of our borders and his extreme vetting of persons from Muslim countries.

Mental Illness

What is mental illness? Let’s start with what it’s not. While there are biological factors that manifest as ‘mental illness’, I leave the classification of organic mental illness for another blog. Mental retardation, for the purposes of this writing, falls under the organic category.

While there are biological factors that manifest as mental illness, I leave the classification of organic mental illness for another blog. Instead, let’s consider behavioral problems for which there is no organic cause.

Neurosis, psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and like classifications hinder rather than help an affected person’s recovery.

From this point forward, I base my observations on the findings and practice of Dr. William Glasser, author of Reality Therapy and founder of the William Glasser Institute. “Reality Therapy is the method of counseling that Dr. Glasser has been teaching since 1965. Reality therapy is firmly based on choice theory and its successful application is dependent on a strong understanding of choice theory.”

Choice Theory

According to Dr. Glasser, “all we do is behave, almost all behavior is chosen, and we are driven by our genes to satisfy five basic needs: survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.”

Dr. Glasser says “the most important need is love and belonging, as closeness and connectedness with the people we care about is a requisite for satisfying all of the needs.”

The Cure

As Dr. Glasser teaches, the mentally ill person needs connection with a healthy, good-quality person who will reinforce the truth. They need this connection.

Constraining them in county jails and state mental hospitals inhibits any possibility of this vital long-term personal connection with someone who can love them.

Yes, there are chemical treatments that alleviate the symptoms but do nothing to heal the person.

Outlook

Widespread mental illness due to widespread personal irresponsibility has overtaken college campuses and sharply defined the boundary between two major political parties along the line of irresponsibility which may be described as a yearning for more socialism.

Extreme leftists generally associated with the Democrat Party refuse to accept the fact of President Donald Trump. Fortunately, California excluded, most of our people are rational thinkers who understand the perils of extraordinary national debt and trade imbalances with other nations.

Last fall a number of professional actors and singers threatened to leave America if Donald Trump became president. He did. They didn’t. Acceptance of Mr. Trump as president by Miley Cyrus and some of the others is actually a healthy outcome, not so for those who remain in denial.

Our major cities have become harbors for the homeless, some homeless due to financial disaster, most due to irresponsibility, all too often the products of government welfare.

Action

Healthy citizens must become engaged in the broad problem of mental illness. If for no other reason, to prevent suicides.

Texas is 49th in per capita spending on mental health. I urge state lawmakers to parse out the various roles of the Texas Dept. of Health and Human Services, set mental health all on its own to focus on healing our people. I believe those cases requiring short-term hospitalization should be in the care of professional hospitals, not state warehouses of humanity.

Learn. Be aware of the homeless around you. Support legislation to better address the issues of homelessness, suicide, and irresponsibility.

Visit with your county and city law enforcement officers to learn about their interactions with mental patients in your community.

Suggested resources

REALITY THERAPY Glasser’s classic bestseller, with more than 500,000 copies sold, examines his alternative to Freudian psychoanalytic procedures, explains the procedure, contrasts it to conventional treatment, and describes different individual cases in which it was successful.

COUNSELING WITH CHOICE THEORY In Counseling with Choice Theory, Dr. William Glasser takes readers into his consulting room and illustrates, through a series of conversations with his patients, exactly how he puts his popular therapeutic theories into practice.

These vivid, almost novelistic case histories bring Dr. Glasser’s therapy to life and show readers how to get rid of the controlling, punishing I know what’s right for you psychology that crops up in most situations when people face conflict with one another.

Practical and readable, Counseling with Choice Theory is Dr. Glasser’s most accessible book in years.

CHOICE THEORY: A NEW PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSONAL FREEDOM Dr. William Glasser offers a new psychology that, if practiced, could reverse our widespread inability to get along with one another, an inability that is the source of almost all unhappiness.

For progress in human relationships, he explains that we must give up the punishing, relationship, destroying external control psychology. For example, if you are in an unhappy relationship right now, he proposes that one or both of you could be using external control psychology on the other. He goes further. And suggests that misery is always related to a current unsatisfying relationship. Contrary to what you may believe, your troubles are always now, never in the past. No one can change what happened yesterday.

My classmates and I came of age to the music of Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin, and Freddy Fender, all talented and all were born and raised in Texas.

Freddy Fender was his professional moniker, but Baldemar Huerta is the name with which he was born.

What set Freddy apart from his peers was his character. Although as happens to many professional musicians, I refer to alcohol and drug addictions, he was a gentle soul, a peacemaker wherever he was.

His social philosophy can be distilled down to his refusal to participate in societal segregation. In a 1977 Washington Post interview he said, “Whenever I run into prejudice, I smile and feel sorry for them, and I say to myself, `There’s one more argument for birth control.‘”

His music enjoyed cross-cultural popularity. He frequently interlaced Spanish and English verses. The following is possibly the best example: Before The Next Teardrop Falls

From MCRD San Diego, a brief biographical sketch of this famous Texan.

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Before Freddy Fender became famous, he was a Marine. Freddy served in the United States Marine Corps from 1954-1957.

Freddy’s real name was Baldemar Huerta, and he grew up poor, living in a Hispanic neighborhood in San Benito, Texas. Freddy wanted to be like JOHN WAYNE in the Sands of Iwo Jima. His mother lied about his age, and Freddy enlisted in the Marines when he was just sixteen years old.

Even while he was in boot camp, Freddy was known for his musical skill. His Drill Instructors would wake him up in the middle of the night to serenade the platoon. Later in his Marine Corps career when he was stationed on Okinawa, he continued to play music for his fellow Marines.

Freddy’s music career spanned more than four decades. He received numerous accolades for his contributions to rock, country, Tejano, blues, and pop music. Freddy played for three U.S. Presidents, received three Grammy awards, and has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Freddy never forgot the struggles of his life. He believed, “We should all try to give something back.” An average student when he was in high school, Freddy later established a scholarship fund for average students who earned ‘B’s and ‘C’s. Freddy battled drug and alcohol addiction during a period in his life. After getting sober, he raised money for Charlie’s Place Recovery Center, a rehab facility for alcoholics. He also raised money for diabetes education and children’s services.

Though he spent a small amount of his life in the Marine Corps, Freddy was proud of his service. “Hey, little did I know that I would be the future Freddy Fender, the Singing Marine, and proud of it!” He played at military bases overseas to raise the morale of servicemen and women.

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Performing artists who served on the USO tours performed a highly-valued service to our country. Freddy’s service ranks up there with that of Bob Hope, Glenn Miller, and other American artists who used their God-given gifts to enhance the lives and morale of our armed forces.

Oath Keepers – Guardians of the Republic
Oath Keepers is a non-partisan association of currently serving military, reserves, National Guard, veterans, Peace Officers, and Fire Fighters who will fulfill the Oath we swore, with the support of like minded citizens who take an Oath to stand with us,